Summary

Antiasthmatics are widely used drugs that are known to impair the quality of sleep. So far, the effect of the long-acting, inhaled β2-agonist formoterol on the quality of sleep in healthy subjects has not been evaluated. 20 healthy subjects (9 women, 11 men, 19–45 years, mean age 28.3 years) without lung disease or sleep disorder were evaluated by polysomnography during 3 nights. After one night of adaptation, the patients were randomly assigned 12 μg of formoterol during one and placebo during the other night. We compared the frequency of respiratory disturbances, arousals, sleep stages, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, leg activity, and subjective impression of sleep quality in both groups. There were no respiratory disturbances in the study group as a whole, and the participents' subjective impressions of sleep quality did not differ after formoterol and placebo. Quality of sleep did not differ in both groups with a regular distribution of all sleep stages. In healthy persons, formoterol does not influence, or even impair, the quality of sleep.